In the area of digital printing (the term "printing" is used to encompass both printing and displaying throughout), gray level has been achieved in a number of different manners. The representation of the intensity, i.e., the gray level, of a color by binary displays and printers has been the object of a variety of algorithms. Binary displays and printers are capable of making a mark, usually in the form of a dot, of a given, uniform mark, usually in the form of a dot, of a given, uniform size and at a specified resolution in marks per unit length, typically dots per inch. It has been common to place the marks according to a variety of geometrical patterns such that a group of marks when seen by the eye gives a rendition of an intermediate color tone between the color of the background (usually white paper stock) and total coverage, or solid density.
Continuous tone images contain an apparent continuum of gray levels. As an approximation to continuous tone images, pictorial imagery has been represented via binary halftone technologies. In order to record or display a halftone image with a scanning system, one picture element of the recording or display surface consists of a j.times.k matrix of sub-elements where j and k are positive integers. A halftone image is reproduced by printing the respective sub-elements or leaving them blank, in other words, by suitably distributing the printed marks.
Halftone image processing algorithms are evaluated in part, by their capability of delivering a complete gray scale at normal viewing distances. The capability of a particular process to reproduce high frequency rendition (fine detail) with high contrast modulation makes that procedure superior to one which reproduces such fine detail with lesser or no output contrast.
Another method of producing gray levels is provided by gray level printing. In such a method, each pixel has the capability to render several different dot sizes. The dot size for a pixel is a function of the exposure time provided an LED element corresponding to that pixel. The longer the exposure time, the more toner is attracted to that particular pixel. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,645 for a method of rendering gray scale images with variable dot sizes.
There are two major concerns in rendering a continuous tone image for printing: (1) the resolution of image details, and (2) the reproduction of gray scales. In a binary halftone representation scheme, these two fundamental factors compete with each other. The more gray levels that are rendered, the larger is the halftone cell. Consequently, coarse halftone line screens are provided, with the attendant poor image appearance. Hence, a compromise is made in rendering between the selection of line resolution and gray scales in binary halftone printing. However, in gray level halftone printing, one can satisfy both resolution and gray level requirements. In gray level printing, the same number of addressable dots are present, and there is a choice of dot sizes from one dot-size of 1 bit/pixel to 16 different dot-sizes of 4 bit/pixel. An image could then be rendered with 133 line screens and 128 gray scales of higher quality image. Although providing higher image quality with respect to line resolution and tonal scales, gray level halftoning presents its own dot rendering issues.
A problem exists in the application of a gray level rendering technique to a document that contains different types of images: text, halftone, and continuous tone. These different types of images create different rendering problems, based on a trade-off between tone scales and detail resolution. For example, with text, the number of tone scales is not as important as providing a smooth text edge, whereas the opposite holds true for continuous tone images. Providing a single type of gray level halftone rendering technique to a document that contains two or more types of images may lead to the production of a document in which one or more of the different types of images are reproduced unsatisfactorily.
When scanning a document, image processing techniques have been applied to convert a gray scale image into an image representation which a printer can accept (either binary format or gray level format). In this scanning process, text areas, line drawing and halftone pictures are indistinguishable from each other, and all appear to be a gray scale image. An improper conversion process creates artifacts in the hardcopy such as a jagged boundary in the text area, or a Moire pattern in the halftone region. To overcome this, intelligent processes have been developed to segment the image into different regions of text, line drawing, and picture. Different conversion processes for the individual segments were then applied to these segments to restore the original document. However, these segmentation and conversion processes unduly complicate the digital copying process.
There is a need for a unified rendering method and apparatus using gray level printing that will satisfactorily reproduce an image that contains text, line drawing, halftone and/or continuous tone regions, with different gray dot representations selected for the specific regions. There is a need for a method and apparatus which does this without a need to "know" where is the text region, the halftone region or the continuous tone region, and which overcomes artifacts such as a jagged text boundary or a Moire pattern in the halftone.